Bioethanol Production: Process, Technology and Sustainable Industrial Applications

A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 1442

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Natural Resource Science, University of Akureyri, Borgir v. Nordurslod, 600 Akureyri, Iceland
Interests: biocatalysis; microbiology; organic synthesis; anaerobic cultivation; enzymology; extremophiles

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Natural Resource Sciences, University of Akureyri, 600 Akureyri, Iceland
Interests: bioethanol; biohydrogen; thermophiles; anaerobic; fine chemicals; biotechnology; genetic engineering
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The production of ethanol from renewable raw materials remains a topic of intense interest given the fragility of global supply chains and the need to shift away from petroleum-derived molecules. Beyond its role as a biofuel, ethanol is an important industrial chemical that serves a wide range of applications, including as an industrial feedstock, solvent, and in the preparation of pharmaceutical preparations. Despite a growing demand for ethanol, the fermentative production of bioethanol from complex biomass remains challenging due to costly and often complex pretreatment protocols. Designing better bioprocessing organisms, such as those better suited to simultaneous saccharification and fermentation or consolidated bioprocessing, through genetic modification remains an area of active investigation. Additionally, of interest is the production of ethanol and other alcohols from other materials such as macroalgae and though the valorization of waste streams as is the separation of ethanol from aqueous media using selective techniques such as pervaporation.

This Special Issue on “Bioethanol Production: Process, Technology and Sustainable Industrial Applications” seeks high quality works focusing on the latest work on processes related to the production of ethanol from sustainable raw materials.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Production of bioethanol from complex biomass or waste streams such as lignocellulosic or algal biomass
  • Valorization of low-value waste streams for bioalcohol production
  • Development of novel bioprocessing organisms for bioethanol production
  • Techniques for the separation of ethanol from aqueous media

Dr. Sean Michael Scully
Prof. Dr. Johann Örlygsson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • ethanol
  • waste valorization
  • consolidated bioprocessing
  • separation techniques
  • consolidated bioprocessing
  • simultanteous saccharification and fermentation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 5392 KiB  
Article
The Use of a Trichoderma reesei Culture for the Hydrolysis of Wheat Straw to Obtain Bioethanol
by Maria Ciobanu, Carmen Otilia Rusănescu and Raluca Lucia Dinculoiu
Processes 2024, 12(12), 2625; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr12122625 - 22 Nov 2024
Viewed by 840
Abstract
To reduce environmental pollution, a renewable source of energy that we may utilize is bioethanol obtained from wheat straw. Wheat straw was ground to 40–50 mm in size and heat-treated with high-pressure steam to release lignocelluloses, making them accessible to enzymes during saccharification. [...] Read more.
To reduce environmental pollution, a renewable source of energy that we may utilize is bioethanol obtained from wheat straw. Wheat straw was ground to 40–50 mm in size and heat-treated with high-pressure steam to release lignocelluloses, making them accessible to enzymes during saccharification. Through mechanical pretreatment, a substrate was obtained, which contains toxic components in concentrations that do not diminish the performance of the enzymes in the enzymatic hydrolysis phase. Through the thermal pretreatment of wheat straw, its acidity was improved, influencing the amounts of glucose, xylose, and other components emitted. Following enzymatic hydrolysis, very small concentrations of sugars were released. In order to increase the efficiency of the transformation of sugars into ethanol during the fermentation process, a strain of yeast, Trichoderma reesei multiplied in the laboratory, was added, under the conditions of temperature—28 degrees and stirring—800 rpm. Trichoderma reesei penetrated the wheat straw substrate, facilitating the subsequent hydrolysis process. The improved biodegradation of the pretreated straws was highlighted by the electron microscopy analysis. Full article
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